This means that if your website visitors don’t have a great user experience (UX), your Google rankings are likely to suffer after this new update is rolled out.
In this short article we’d like to explain more about what the Google Page Experience update is, why it matters and how you can prepare your website for the changes so your search performance isn’t affected.
What is page experience?
Think back to when you last visited a website and found yourself getting frustrated.
Perhaps the page took ages to load. Or annoying pop-up adverts and opt-ins kept getting in your way. Maybe you could barely read the content because it was designed for desktop use and was tiny.
When this happened, you almost certainly just gave up, clicked the back button and found another website instead.
In this case, the problem wasn’t that the website didn’t offer the right information. It may very well have. The problem was that you didn’t have a good experience using it.
At this stage, it’s unclear to how much the Google page experience update will affect your search performance. We’ll only know for sure when the update will be rolling out in 2021.
Having said that, the metrics which Google will be focusing on with this update do already have an impact on your search performance, but in an organic, audience-led way.
As we mentioned at the beginning, visitors are less likely to stick around on your website if they can’t read your information on their mobile, annoying ads dominate the screen or it takes ages for your page to load.
If you haven’t already optimised these factors, it’s more than likely that your website won’t perform as well as it potentially could, regardless of the update.
It’s also important to note that the page experience update factors won’t be the only ones used in ranking your website. Producing engaging, useful content is still the most important factor.
How to prepare for the Page Experience update
Although there aren’t currently any specific tools that can measure page experience, you can identify what needs improvement and make changes with several other tools. These will help you improve your website and get ready for the update.
1. Optimise your site for mobile.
If you’re running a business in the 21st century, you must make sure that your website is mobile friendly.
According to market and consumer data provider Statista, around 52% of traffic in 2019 came from mobile devices. This figure looks set to grow over the coming years, especially as the online market expands as a result of COVID-19.
2. Make your site more secure
These days you must have a secure website if you want to succeed in the online world. You need to keep hackers away, you want to protect your customer’s sensitive personal information and you want to provide users with a safe user experience.
When you can do this, your customers will trust your business, your search rankings are likely to improve and your website will be safer.
There are many ways you can do this, including getting an SSL certificate and switching to https. Both encrypt your website, keeping threats out and helping to boost your SEO rankings.
3. Check your site for security issues
Most businesses will already know if they have been hacked, contains malware or contains content that is deceptive or could potentially harm a visitor or their computer.
However, you can check if your site has any issues that could influence page experience, user experience (UX) or search rankings by using Google Search Console to access a security report.
4. Review how you use ads and images
Using ads and visuals on your website will drive customer engagement, improve the user experience and help boost conversions.
However, it’s vitally important that these don’t detract from your content and provide a poor user experience but add value.
“Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible. This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller,” say Google Webmasters.
Check through your website pages and ensure that any visuals used such as images, infographics, and ads don’t dominate the page. Always opt for high quality, professional standard images instead of stock images.
If you do use pop ups to offer opt-in gifts or encourage newsletter sign ups, keep them to a minimum, avoid using them for mobile and make them easy to close.
As we said in the blog, your page load speed makes a huge difference when it comes to user experience, your Google rankings and attracting website visitors and it can be relatively straightforward to improve.
“Longer page load times have a severe effect on bounce rates,” say Google Webmasters, “If page load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds, bounce rate increases 32%.”
Start by running a speed test in Google Search Console, then read through their advice and optimise the elements suggested. This can include using a design that loads quickly, optimising images, and minifying CSS, JavaScript and HTML.
Summary
To summarise, page experience won’t become a direct ranking factor when the page experience update happens. But combined with other factors, it will influence your rankings overall.
So make sure your site is optimised for mobile, make site security a priority, review your images and opt-ins, and improve your page load speed. You’ll be better placed to maintain your rankings and make your website a more user-friendly, professional place for your customers to visit.
Several months into lockdown and the country is still cautiously trying to navigate its way into the post-COVID world. Some industries have been massively and permanently altered by the pandemic, while others are scrambling to find creative ways to stay afloat in changing times. How has the SEO world been affected, and more specifically, what lies in store for SEO workers and for the way businesses show up in searches?
Google’s Gary Illyes recently set up four Twitter polls and asked SEOs around the world how the virus had impacted their work. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results were mixed, with some reporting barely any change and others reporting massive differences.
Almost half claimed that the pandemic actually increased their SEO-related workload; just 20% claimed it had decreased, and 30% noticed no change. When asked whether it was harder to convince decision makers on the value of SEO services, the results were again mixed – 37% said it had gotten harder, but 31 and 32% said it had gotten easier, or there had been no change, respectively.
Did this happen because SEO workers were pitching differently during the crisis? When Illyses asked about this, the result was split three ways, with roughly a third each claiming they spent less time, more time, or roughly the same time pitching as before. Perhaps the most revealing result came when people were asked about their experience working with developers on SEO projects. A full 55% said it had stayed the same, 30% said it got harder, and only around 15% said it had gotten easier.
What are we to make of these results? As with most things in SEO, there is seldom a simple, straightforward answer. Polls like this go to show that SEO’s range is so broad that it can be challenging to pinpoint trends sometimes. In the end, exactly how any one industry or business is affected will depend heavily on their marketing strategy before the pandemic, the nature of the business, and how swiftly that business responds to the new challenges.
The virus has changed what people search for. For example, e-commerce is experiencing increases across the board, but less so for more non-essential items. Health and wellness sites are seeing traffic boosts as are some recipe sites, but the travel industry is a little more complicated – searches for flights may be up, but could be simply due to people seeking cheaper deals. Most restaurants are having to pivot into home delivery (making things like Google Posts useful for updates).
Ultimately, the answer to how the Coronavirus has affected SEO marketers and their clients’ campaigns is: it depends. The virus has affected every industry differently. The job of any SEO expert is to understand these unique changes and respond accordingly.
What have we been doing at Fibre Marketing?
When the pandemic hit, we had to adapt quickly and as efficiently as possible. Our client portfolio spans across a variety of industries that were affected in different ways. Because of this, each strategy we crafted was unique and adaptable, as the growing uncertainty resulted in almost daily updates and advice on what to do next.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the ways we helped navigate our clients through the Coronavirus crisis:
Google My Business Listings (GMBs)
One of the first major changes to search was the sudden release of GMB features, which allowed businesses to inform customers of their situation more accurately, as well as holding back on others. The option to mark your business as ‘Temporarily Closed’ was long-awaited, so we implemented this feature across clients’ GMBs ASAP. We also published a post for each one to ensure their customers and clients that they were operating smoothly, and how they were opening/closing.
As well as this, we made sure that any contact details were updated so that customers could reach the client as easy as possible – especially after Google temporarily suspended the posting of new GMB reviews.
As the pandemic changed search behaviour, we needed to ensure that our clients were making the most of any opportunities that arose. Monitoring the rapidly evolving trends and search frequencies, we worked with our clients to create content that suits the users’ interests, answered their questions, and capitalised on new, untapped searches to bring in organic traffic.
This was done in the forms of dedicated COVID-19 sections, which included resources designed with customers in mind. For our elderly care client, this section included: arranging support during lockdown, how carers and customers are keeping safe, and even a video on setting up a Zoom account so family members can stay in touch with their loved ones.
A shipping container client’s section is catered towards medical facilities that urgently require extra storage or modular hospital buildings. The content section explores the options available, offering discounts to both medical and charitable organisations. The portable hospital page, which is linked in this guide, now ranks 2nd for the term ‘portable hospital.’
Link Building
As more and more news updates, theories, and advice emerged daily, the type of content that users found valuable changed drastically. So, we had to quickly change our link building strategies to ensure that we’d continue building great backlink profiles.
To do this, we shifted the focus of our content to suit users’ demands and needs, including working from home and mental health. We also monitored Twitter for story requests from journalists and bloggers, recommending our clients as a valuable resource for their articles. For example, a journalist was on the hunt for recruitment experts who could provide tips on writing CVs. One of our clients – an engineering recruitment company – had a blog article already on their site, providing the information the journo wanted, so we reached out, shared our blog with her, and thus gained a link on a top-tier site.
This wasn’t the only campaign we created. Other campaigns included a guide to making care packages, a dedication to home carers to name a few – all of which positioned our clients as experts.
The coronavirus outbreak has changed everything for businesses across the world.
Some sectors have had to close their doors, send their staff home, and cut costs as much as they can. Others working in sectors like online learning, delivery services and conferencing tools have seen a surge in growth that has exceeded business forecasts.
But one thing is certain, digital marketing has changed overnight.
Numerous businesses have slashed their marketing budgets and paused their contracts as the lockdowns, social distancing and economic strains take their toll.
And given such an uncertain future, who can blame them?
However, this is a huge mistake that could haunt them for years to come.
By neglecting their marketing, they’ll allow their business to fall behind. They’ll miss out on this opportunity to tweak their SEO efforts, build their brand, and create a solid, loyal customer base that will drive future success.
In this short article, we’d like to share with you some effective ways you can work with a smaller marketing budget during times of coronavirus and continue to get results.
1. Stay calm
Even though we certainly have seen the markets fluctuate wildly over the last few months and some industries crash, things will return to relative normality eventually. For this reason, you definitely shouldn’t panic and pull the plug on your marketing efforts.
Instead, see this global crisis as an opportunity. Refine your existing marketing strategies. Learn more about what your customers want and need, then go about putting your knowledge into action.
That way, when normality does return, you’ll be ahead of your competition and ready to hit the ground running.
2. Make Google Trends your friend
Search behaviour, engagement and conversion rates are always in fluctuation, even more so at unstable times like these.
That’s why it’s even more important than ever to keep your ear to the ground and find out what people want. What problems do they have? What are they searching for? What are they buying?
Use Google Trends to monitor search habits and you’ll understand current market conditions as they happen. By doing this, you’ll be better able to make key decisions that relate to the marketing of your business.
This includes where to focus your marketing efforts, how to invest your budget, which tools you will use to reach your goals and even what kind of content you could create to meet these changing needs.
The same applies to keywords. Monitor Google Search Console and Keyword Rankings more closely than you otherwise would to understand the nature and volume of searches.
3. Consider reducing your PPC budget
If your research has shown that search volume is significantly decreased for your industry or niche or that your business is currently closed, it can be worth reducing your PPC budget for the time being.
This allows you to funnel your existing marketing budget into other marketing strategies that provide a better ROI, such as SEO.
If you absolutely don’t want to cancel your Google Ads, Facebook Ads or other PPC ads, consider how you could refine your efforts to make them perform better. Ask yourself the following questions:
Which campaigns are providing the best results?
Can we review our CTAs and update copy to become more relevant to the current situation?
Do we need to add new information to our ads? This includes changes to opening hours, delivery, pickup options.
4. Invest in SEO
To maximise your marketing efforts, consider allocating a greater portion of your budget to SEO.
When you do this, you’ll be marketing to those who already intend to buy. For obvious reasons, this means that every penny you invest is more likely to lead to conversions and profit for your business.
Effective SEO also makes it much easier for you to connect those potential customers with your product, even if they’re currently stuck at home and unable to physically buy your product or service at the moment.
Remember, your customers haven’t suddenly stopped wanting your product or service. It’s only their buying behaviour that has.
Tailor your marketing to them in a way that solves these problems and offers solutions and you will continue to build your brand and improve your organic visibility, regardless of what the market is doing.
If you can adapt to these current conditions, switch, or grow your SEO strategy and become as flexible as possible, you’ll be in a much better place to ride out the storm.
Here are a few ways you can improve your SEO marketing strategy
Conduct a content audit. See what you have of value and see if you can repurpose this content, rework it to meet your customers’ current needs or make it more relevant.
Tweak your on-page SEO. Can you optimise your CTAs? Could you add more internal links? [Request a free website audit here].
Create new content. Create new blog posts, videos, webinars, and other content to expand your audience, grow brand loyalty and help solve your customers’ problems. [More on Building Your Content Marketing Strategy here.]
Invest in link building. Build connections with others in your industry to increase your exposure and expand your audience. [Read more about this in our article ‘Link Building During the Coronavirus Outbreak’ here.]
Summary
Despite what your social media feed might be telling you right now, the downturn many businesses have faced thanks to the coronavirus won’t last forever. But how you react now will influence the success of your business for many years to come.
So stay calm and try not to react. Invest wisely in SEO to maximise your ROI. Be flexible, refine your efforts and you’ll be more likely to bounce back.
While we await the total for 2019, it is still clear to see that, when it comes to managing your website, you should not sit idle. Studies have shown that between 70-80% of users research a business online before making a purchase, meaning that being found online is vital for your company. As Google continues to roll out algorithm updates, it’s important to adjust your website as needed in order to boost your search visibility and gain first page rankings.
But with so many changes being made throughout the year, it can be hard to keep up. So, we’ve compiled a list of all algorithmic changes of 2020 so far, including the winners and losers, which we’ll update as time goes on.
January 13th – January 2020 Core Update
The first update of the year was announced by Google on January 13th, rolling out across the world and affecting all languages. Tracking tools showed high volatility for three days, with Google confirming that the update was ‘mostly done’ rolling out on the 16th.
Core updates do not target a particular industry, and anyone can be affected. They are designed to improve how Google’s systems rank content. The search engine giant explains this in more detail on their blog:
“…imagine you made a list of the top 100 movies in 2015. A few years later, in 2019, you refresh the list. It’s going to naturally change. Some new and wonderful movies that never existed before will now be candidates for inclusion. You might also reassess some films and realize they deserved a higher place on the list than they had before. The list will change, and films previously higher on the list that move down aren’t bad. There are simply more deserving films that are coming before them.
Winners and Losers
Towards the end of 2019, most updates saw YMYL (your money or your life) sites as the most affected. This update was no different, particularly for the health and finance sectors. Very Well Health was one of the top winners, according to multiple sources, as was Yahoo Finance. A few dictionary sites came out triumphant, too. Meanwhile, a further group of healthcare sites fell victim.
Overall, this update has been duped by many as large and fierce, causing great tremors throughout top ten rankings.
January 23rd – Featured Snippet Deduplication
While this wasn’t exactly an algorithm update, the deduplication of featured snippets was still a considerable change that majorly affected websites’ click-through-rates (CTR).
Previously, featured snippets (pictured below) were counted as their own, stand-alone search engine results page (SERP) feature, not an organic search listing. If a site obtained a featured snippet, the same URL would also appear in the listings below as an ordinary listing.
On the 23rd, Google announced that, if a URL is featured in a snippet, it would not appear on the first page of search results. Thus aligning this SERP feature with Google’s claim that a featured snippet is an organic entity, counting as position number one. Before this deduplication, a featured snippet counted as position zero.
Winners and Losers
In this case, there were no obvious winners and losers to be precise, but many sites did report losses of traffic. This deduplication led to many site owners having to decide which they’d rather lose: a first-page ranking, or a featured snippet. Moz tried conducting a CTR study to see which loss would have a bigger impact, but unfortunately, it is impossible to decipher if clicks to a URL were from the featured snippet or the organic listing.
Overall, this major change was met with confusion and outcry and sparked much discussion over the future of featured snippets.
February 9th – Unconfirmed Search Ranking Update
While a core update has been denied by Google, we have decided to include it in this blog as there were significant amounts of chatter and tracker tools were off the charts for five days – longer than the standard algorithm updates.
From the February 9th, discussions of a suspected search update started to arise on Twitter and various web forums. SEO spokesperson Barry Shwartz reported the fluctuations as ‘really big, maybe even massive’ changes that were taking place. Many sites experienced severe traffic drops and spikes.
On the 13th, Google’s Danny Sullivan stated, ‘We do updates all the time’ in response to this speculation. This suggests that algorithmic changes were made during this time, just not on the same scale as a core update.
Winners and Losers
Unfortunately, it’s hard to decipher a clear sector that either benefitted or suffered the most following these changes. The suggested update occurred across the globe, and there were both winners and losers in a range of industries. There was even some speculation that several updates actually took place, as many of the sites that saw drops then experienced traffic increases a few days later. The one thing that was certain following the confusing five days was that some sort of changes were made – it’s just unclear what exactly those changes were.
May 4th – May 2020 Core Update
The second core update of the year began rolling out on May 4th and appeared to have mostly ended by the 7th. Rank Ranger dubbed this update as an ‘absolute monster’ as the effects appear more brutal than those which occurred in January. Furthermore, this update took place amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, which had already significantly affected a wide range of sites and caused a change in search patterns.
Winners and Losers
Unlike many other updates, the May core update appeared to have less focus on typical E-A-T areas and was broader than usual updates, making it harder to detect a clear winner or user. Marie Haynes claimed that Google is getting better at recognising which links are ‘truly recommendations for your content and which are self-made for SEO reasons.’
It was interesting to note that Spotify took a hit, despite it progressing steadily over the last few years.
As of today, 15th May, information surrounding this update is still rolling out, and so we will continue to update our blog with our findings.
June 23rd – Suspected Federal Update
On June 23rd, there were reports of another algorithm taking place, although Google is yet to comment. The SEO trackers were showing high volatility in the SERPs, and many reported significant gains.
What’s interesting about this update is that it seemed to target .gov sites, along with other YMYL industries, a trend which appears to be mirrored across the globe. This pattern is what led Barry Shwartz to label is update as ‘The Federal Update.’
Winners and Losers
.gov sites were not the only winners of this update; health and news sites were also affected. But it is clear to see that government sites were the ones impacted the most. It’s possible that Google now prefers these sites over other domains, due to their authority. Authority is part of the E-A-T metric that Google refers to in its Quality Rater Guidelines, so it’s only natural for .gov and .org sites to experience a boost in search visibility.
July 6th – Small Search Ranking Update
A small search ranking update may have taken place on 6th July, lasting until the 8th. While there wasn’t as much chatter surrounding this update as the last, some webmasters still detected some changes in their site traffic. This algorithm update targeted niche websites, and our SERP volatility tracker reported nothing more than a slight increase in movement amongst rankings.
Winners and Losers
It’s harder to say who the winners and losers were with this update, as only a small number of sites were affected. Education sites reportedly saw some movement, but it’s highly likely that a particular niche of sites was amongst those most affected, due to the small amount of volatility.
July 24 – Suspected Search Ranking Update & What SEO’s Get Wrong About Google’s Updates
Not long after the previous suspected update, another one came along. Only this time, it was much bigger, with our volatility tracker showing fluctuations amongst the SERPs for most industries.
To add to this, a few days later (28th July), Barry Shwartz published an article on Search Engine Land exploring what SEO’ers often get wrong about Google algorithm updates. Shwartz promotes the idea that we should stop obsessing over what Google is changing each time an update rolls out and focus on our websites instead. This is because most people blame their drops in traffic on updates, when, in reality, it’s because their websites usually aren’t up to scratch. The time spent trying to crack the algo updates should be spent on improving content, UX, link profiles and other ranking factors.
This coincides with a statement Google made in August 2019. They stated that, when it comes to improving your site following updates, ‘There’s nothing to fix.’ Nothing really changes when Google rolls out updates, only how they assess content. The search engine giant then followed this up with ‘We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.’ Shwartz’s advice, therefore, aligns with Google’s own – but what do you think?
Marie Haynes chimed into this discussion, offering a few tips to help you decipher if any traffic losses are the result of a recent update. You should start by looking at any recent changes made to your site, as well as the number of pages that were affected. If a noticeable drop in traffic occurred within 48 hours of an algorithm’s start date, then that was likely the cause.
Winners and Losers
Many industries experienced some fluctuations, according to our volatility tracker. The sports, news and arts & entertainment industries saw drastic changes. According to SEMrush, victims included WorkingTitleFilms.com, Marvel and Talk Sport, whereas winners included GuitarWorld, Teen Vogue and TheStage.com.
August 10th – August 11th – 2020 Google Glitch
On Monday afternoon, Barry Schwartz reported one of the largest Google updates many had seen for a long time. He commented that it looked like there was “a big Google search ranking algorithm rolling out”, although it was not confirmed by Google.
By Monday night, many in the SEO community were noticing huge discrepancies in search results. Content that was once high-ranking suddenly seemed to drop several pages, while other low-ranking sites started popping up in the first pages of the SERPs.
However, it was soon revealed that this was not an update, but in fact a glitch.
On August 11th, Google commented on the glitch, “On Monday we detected an issue with our indexing systems that affected Google search results. Once the issue was identified, it was promptly fixed by our Site Reliability Engineers and by now it has been mitigated.”
Winners and Losers
Technically, there weren’t really any winners or losers in this scenario – as it was a glitch – but it was certainly interesting to see which sites temporarily ranked higher.
According to Marie Haynes, sites who experienced a boost in traffic included medical articles that did not include supporting references or links to authoritative sites. These articles referenced natural remedies that were not backed by scientific facts. Haynes also commented that many of the sites that started ranking high included unnatural links.
But, on August 15th, it appeared the glitch trauma was not over. Strong amounts of chatter picked in the SEO community following significant changes being reported in the SERPs, similar to those seen during the initial glitch. But by the 16th, things seemed to have calmed down, leading to speculation of another issue from Google’s side.
The amount of fluctuations were captured by our volatility checker, which was off the charts throughout the 15th.
If this is another glitch, this mirrors the pattern that’s been forming recently when it comes to indexing. Speculation was rife in May with more indexing issues, although Google’s John Mueller stated that there wasn’t a bug, at most a few minor glitches. There were also reports in June, when Google experienced more problems. Furthermore, throughout 2019, there were many problems with content being de-indexed, and at one point, new content wasn’t being indexed at all.
If your website has been affected by an algorithm update and you’re struggling to find a solution, get in touch with us at Fibre Marketing, and we’ll help you get back on track.
Google is constantly making updates – thousands a year – although more extensive core updates understandably play a greater role in how search results will be generated. On the 4 May, 2020, Google announced that they rolling out a core algorithm update, the second one of its kind for this year.
This is a broad update which will affect everyone regardless of location, industry or language – but what does it mean for your business? Part of our work at Fibre is to properly understand exactly how these updates affect our clients, and how they can position themselves to stay ahead. We’re here to answer a few questions about the upcoming changes.
What are core updates essentially for?
Though the hundreds of smaller updates throughout the year go by largely unnoticed, core updates cause changes that can be very noticeable, internationally, and are likely to have obvious effects on the way your business shows up in search results.
This may not be a bad thing however – at Fibre we’ve noticed that some sectors are more negatively impacted while others will actually see a gain in their search rankings. Updates generally aim to improve content relevancy for users, but this does mean that businesses need to routinely reappraise their SEO strategy and be aware of how any updates affect their visibility.
How long does the update take to have effect?
Though the rollout is live currently, it’s likely still too early for businesses to notice any major effects. Typically, updates of this size take around a week or two to be established fully. Google’s first core update of this year was in January.
What kind of content will fare better after the update?
Google’s algorithms are designed to reward content that is more likely to satisfy users’ queries. If your content has dropped in relevancy since the last core update, its new search ranking will reflect this. On the other hand, some content will in fact perform better. There are no hard and fast rules – every business needs to do a careful assessment of pre-existing content to find out what’s working and what isn’t.
Wouldn’t the Coronavirus prevent Google’s updates?
The straightforward answer is no. Google have confirmed that scheduled updates will take place regardless. This could be worrisome, especially for those businesses who are already experiencing some volatility. Though some are choosing to essentially pause during lockdown and hold off on making strategic changes to their search marketing plan, it’s worth remembering that the new algorithms have not paused, and any losses experienced during this period may be difficult to recoup after lockdown lifts.
The unavoidable truth is that the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly altered not only consumer behavior but also online search behavior, with Google reporting, for example, that searches related to the virus have been the single most popular topic in the search engine’s history. Even casual users will have noticed the many changes Google has made to provide accurate information and data, as well as prioritise certain helpful content in the public interest.
Thus, Google’s update has rolled out as planned, but the criteria for “relevant” is greatly impacted by the needs of a world ravaged by the Coronavirus. The May core update may prove to be disruptive primarily because people’s searching behaviour is vastly different from what it was just six months ago. Some unexpected content topics are gaining in relevance while previously high performing ones will take a knock.
What you can do
In Google’s constant attempts to refine their search algorithms, businesses are forced to respond by increasing the quality of their sites. Though the changes can seem intimidating, many of the old rules still apply: businesses should always seek to be an authoritative and trustworthy source of truly valuable information, and reassess continually to make sure they’re hitting the mark.
A flexible SEO team can help you narrow down an intelligent strategy that exploits rising trends – such as increasing mobile use, the decline of text-rich content in favour of other formats, the rise of Google My Business and a growing focus on a more local perspective.
Coronavirus hasn’t just affected the daily lives of billions of people across the globe.
It has also forced businesses to make numerous changes in the way they operate. Many have been forced to adjust to social distancing regulations, figure out remote working, and understand how they can keep their heads above water.
That’s why, we’ve been sharing with you several SEO tips over the last few weeks that can help your business get through these challenging times. Hopefully, they’ll also help you to see the glimmer of opportunity that lies in this crisis and help your business thrive.
Today, we’re going to turn our attention to link building and explain why it matters, and which factors you need to take into consideration now.
What is link building?
You can think of link building as a way of building connections online.
Put simply, it involves asking another website to add a hyperlink to your website as a valuable resource for their users. Usually, the better the website that links to you, the better your rankings.
These are just some of the reasons why link building forms such an important part of any search marketing strategy.
How do you build links?
Building effective, high-quality links isn’t an easy task, despite how we’ve made it appear above. Changes to the search engine algorithms mean that digital marketers are constantly adjusting their strategies according to what is getting the best results.
Some of the main ways to build links include:
Outreach. Just tell someone else in your niche you have content that they might love then share it with them, then hope that they’ll share it with their readers. That’s it. This can be a great way to earn a natural link.
Guest posting. Guest posting involves approaching a high-quality website in your chosen niche and offering to create content for them for free. You’ll earn a link back to your website and help boost your traffic too.
Content marketing. Content marketing involves creating content, contributing to expert publications, collaborating with other experts in your field and repurposing your existing content.
There can be a significant overlap between these so most digital markers use a combination of several to help their clients achieve the results they are looking for.
Why does link building matter?
As we’ve mentioned above, link building is a great way to help improve your rankings. But that’s not all it can do. It’s also an excellent way to build relationships with other experts in your niche, build trust, increase your referral traffic and establish you as an authority in your niche.
Because of coronavirus, link building has become more important than ever. We need the support of community, of other professionals and businesses in our niche if we want to survive these difficult economic times.
Four great tips to help you navigate link building during coronavirus
Although many bloggers and marketing departments have been furloughed, links are still being built. In fact, many businesses and organisations are viewing these times as an opportunity to reconnect with their audience, tune in to the unique needs of their audience, add extra value, and position themselves as experts in their niche.
Here at Fibre Marketing, we’re proud to help that happen. Here are four tips for link building during COVID-19, based on our personal observations and research.
1. Show that you care
Real human connections and mutual support is more important now than ever before.
Because regardless of whether you’ve fallen sick or not, coronavirus will have taken its toll on your life.
That’s why it’s so important to stay friendly, approachable, and human when creating content for link building purposes and doing outreach. Provide real value to your audience. Make a difference to their lives.
Remember, link building isn’t just about hyperlinks- it’s also about building relationships and providing value to your audience. What better opportunity than now?
2. Choose who to reach out to, carefully
Although there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to who to approach for link building, we do have a few tips to share based on what seems to be working.
For obvious reasons, healthcare links haven’t been an issue as they are very timely and can work well if you’re a specialist in a certain field with facts to share.
When it comes to other industries, we’ve seen a bit of a mixed bag.
For example, although travel is an industry that has been hard hit, there have been a few publications wanting new travel content to stoke the flames of wanderlust. But note that this hasn’t applied to every site in the industry.
Again, this is likely to change over the coming months and years as we come out of lockdown and adjust to the new realities of the economy.
3. Consider the most effective topics
We’ve noticed that certain topics have become very popular over the last few weeks and are worth focussing your efforts around. This includes anything relating to gardening, mental health, and working from home.
Clearly, these are very general ideas and could spark any number of possible content titles that would resonate with the audience in question. To narrow down these ideas, first consider whether your business has a unique angle to offer, advice to give, or can provide further value to your target audience.
It’s also worth having a look at what people are talking about. Topics that seem to work well during coronavirus seem to be related to:
Social distancing
Helping the sick and those in need
Positivity and self-development
Parenting/homeschooling during a pandemic
Technology: how it can help your business to continue and maintain social connections
4. Use what you have
Do you have any existing content that has resonated with your audience in the past and is relevant to the current situation?
If so, consider using this content for link building purposes or editing/rewriting it to provide even more value.
This could help you save valuable time and money and could also help you build your authority as an expert in your niche.
Summary
Navigating the current coronavirus pandemic isn’t easy for any of us. But that doesn’t mean that your digital marketing efforts have to crumble.
There has never been a better time than now to build those valuable connections with your community, demonstrate your expertise and support your audience.
Right now, we are living in a period of uncertainty. The outbreak of coronavirus has changed the world in ways that many of us never thought would happen, and various industries have been affected, including the search industry.
As we all try to navigate our way through this outbreak, we’ve put together this list of resources to help you through these circumstances, including tips for your SEO, updates from Google and links that may be valuable to you.
We will update each section as we continue to post tips and tricks on our site and social media channels.
Our recent posts exploring the effects of coronavirus on SEO:
64% said content about news and/or public service announcements 56% said the new normal e.g., #workfromhome and homeschooling 52% said supporting the community 46% said optimism e.g., feel-good stories#seopic.twitter.com/9hVCfmNGwT
1. 'Can you hear me?' 2. 'I'm going to share my screen…can you all see it?' 3. Something about a team member's working space 4. 'Any plans for the weekend?' response: 'Staying inside' 5. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye#workfromhome#wfhpic.twitter.com/5zbi5nHkgf
1. Regular calls are vital 2. Dogs are distracting yet they may be the only faces that you see 3. Make sure to get outside at some point 4. Snacking is inevitable 5. Your PJs are not ideal WFH attire#wfh#covid19#remoteworking
Every site has – and should have – internal links. Though they’re easily forgotten, they’re a fundamental way of improving your site’s performance in search engines. To put it simply, internal links are what they sound like – hyperlinks that go from one page to another on the same domain or website. We’ll be looking at what they are in a little more detail, show you the SEO benefits and give you a quick rundown of how to use internal links on your own site.
What internal links do
They’re most commonly used in main navigation and allow your users to move around the domain according to a hierarchy that makes sense for your site. They also help distribute link equity/ranking power across websites. Though external links are important – those “backlinks” that take visitors to other sites – internal links are another – and arguably easier – way to significantly boost your site’s performance.
How they help your SEO performance
To put it simply, a search engine like Google has “spiders” or web crawlers that trawl the content and pathways of a site when deciding to direct visitors there. If you publish new content that isn’t on the sitemap and has no internal or external links, then the search engine has a harder time “seeing” it, potentially ignoring entire chunks of content simply because it cannot quickly locate a path to them. In other words, link equity will be unevenly distributed across the site.
Internal links can be a clever way to get traffic to pages you can’t naturally link to in any other way. A properly organised and logically hierarchical site distributes the ranking power evenly, resulting in a better ranking overall for each page. The more internal links, the more trust and equity for your site.
How to use internal links
The best way to build a high-performance hierarchy that’s navigable for both users and search algorithms, is to create internal links and supplementary URL structures. The links can be images but are more commonly anchor texts that the user sees and clicks. Try the following tips to boost performance:
Structure your hierarchy with the most important pages at the top, going down the pyramid in importance. Create “silos” or logical subcategories to organise pages that naturally belong together – each topic cluster is linked to the main hub and so to the rest of the hierarchy. You want natural, relevant links, which will perform better than simply trying to shoehorn various keywords into content. When in doubt, it’s better not to link than to create an irrelevant link.
Use good anchor texts – they don’t need to be an exact match. Make the text clear, specific and as natural as possible in context. Make sure to keep internal links in mind every time you publish new content, and avoid using the same anchor text over and over again.
Conduct a comprehensive site audit to find any broken links, links pointing to blocked or deleted pages, “orphan pages” (those with no links), links going to irrelevant pages, or links written in the wrong format. Alternatively, audit tools are simple to use and will help you understand your redirect traffic.
Don’t overdo it. It can be a bad idea to have too many internal links. Prioritise your user experience and link only when it’s natural and helpful to do so – 10 or so is a rough limit (this page has 8).
Remember that your site needs to be user-friendly, too. Regularly check that your site architecture, user experience and navigability is what it should be, especially if the site is expanding.
You could conduct your own Google search to help you decide exactly where to link from. Use the search operator site:yourdomain.com “keyword or phrase related to page” to see how often the phrase appears in your site’s posts. If you find a keyword with no link – put a link there. Your SEO team can help with this.
Identify your power pages: those pages that have the most backlinks and highest authority. Your most important sites should have the most internal links to tell web crawlers how important it is. A tool like Screaming Frog can help you filter out your top pages.
At Fibre Marketing, we’ve found that Internal link building is simple once you understand the basic principles. As with most SEO, you’re essentially finding ways to make your site as visible, relevant and valuable to users as possible – and this is a question of understanding the rules search engines use to determine this.
There is no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic that is going on at the moment is changing the ways that we are working and running our businesses – both temporarily and perhaps in the long-term. Although fewer businesses are able to operate as they normally would, it is important that we all prepare ourselves for when the outbreak is over and the world gets back to ‘normal’.
Despite the fact that you might not be able to do your ‘normal’ work, there is plenty that businesses can be doing in the meantime to be able to bounce back strongly from the impact of COVID-19. And one of those is content marketing and SEO.
This ‘downtime’ can give you the time that you need to create some great web content for your business, give your SEO a boost, and ensure that you are ready to take off again when this is all over.
When you are creating content, there are a few aspects that you should consider to ensure that your content to be as effective as possible:
Write for the User
To determine which web pages rank highly on the SERPs, search engines such as Google have algorithms that will find the pages most relevant to the searcher. The search engines want people to continue to use their services, and so the most important thing for them is to display the pages that are the most relevant and informative to their searchers.
This means that your pages should be written for users and NOT for the search engines. By putting out good quality, informative, and useful content you are more likely to be rewarded with a higher ranking in the SERPs.
Keyword Research
When you are planning a content marketing strategy it is important first to carry out some keyword research. This means researching the terms that people are likely to use to be able to find your website. There are plenty of tools that you can use to help you to carry out this keyword research, or you can speak to an SEO consultant.
From this keyword research, you can then go on to plan your content, ensuring that these terms or questions are covered in it. It is important, however, that you don’t ‘keyword stuff’ your content – search engines don’t like this and will penalise you for it!
H1 and H2 Tags
It is important that, when you publish SEO copy, you use H1 and H2 tags to help your content to be organised. H1 tags are like the title of a book, and H2 tags are used to break up the content like subtitles. They can help to organise content and ensure that searchers can find what they are looking for quickly and easily – and this is always beneficial in terms of SEO.
You should have just one H1 tag per page and use H2 tags sparingly whilst being as descriptive as possible.
Your Pages
There are several different ways that you can work on your SEO content. You should first ensure that your website is properly optimised. This means making sure that you have up-to-date information, properly optimised product pages, a good ‘about’ page, and a blog section.
Once these pages are fully optimised, you can then go on to think about blog content. The golden rule here is to make your content interesting, informative, entertaining, or authoritative (or preferably all of them!). Some blog ideas include:
Articles
Interviews
Lists
Guides
Videos
Infographics
E-A-T for Good SEO
When it comes to creating the best content for SEO, you should try to comply with the E-A-T rules.
E-A-T stands for:
Expertise – You need to show that you are an expert in your field. You need to show that you know what you are talking about, and this is especially important for professional businesses as opposed to gossip or celebrity websites, for example.
Authoritative – You can use your expertise (or the expertise of your writer) to show that you are an authority in your area. From this, you will become the go-to person for your readers (and potential customers).
Trustworthy – You should make your readers feel that they can trust you – especially if you are hoping that they buy from you! Keep your website strong and clear, informative and secure.
Old Content
Re-purposing your old content is a great way to freshen up your website and help with SEO. You can update any out-of-date information, helping with SEO and making it more attractive to searchers. We also know that Google loves new content – even if it is just re-purposed old content! This also gives you the chance to correct spelling or grammatical errors, fix technical issues like broken backlinks – and add new ones, add other media, and add new keywords.
In this time when your other workload might be low, it is the ideal moment to get your website content perfect, to ensure that it is working efficiently for your business through SEO. By incorporating these fundamentals, you can ensure that you are ready to go again as soon as you need to.
The coronavirus pandemic that the world is experiencing at the moment is affecting everything about our daily lives – from how much we can see our loved ones, to how we are working.
For many businesses, this is a worrying time as they try to contend with changes in people’s consumption and spending habits, to looking after their staff and protecting them both in terms of their health and financially, and of course, considering the implications of potentially having high percentages of staff off sick at any given time.
Although it might not be ‘business as usual’, it is important for businesses to prepare for when the outbreak is over. Just because you might not be able to operate as normal, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be working on certain aspects of your business – and that your competitors aren’t sitting around idle!
The world of marketing, for example, doesn’t stop. In fact, online marketing has never been more important as more people begin to operate and communicate online. And one major aspect of online marketing is content creation.
Content Creation for Marketing During COVID-19
As fewer people are travelling, fewer people are out of the house and fewer people are visiting events, offline marketing is becoming less effective than before. Likewise, the world as a whole is spending more time online, looking for information and to be entertained – in other words, looking for content.
Content marketing concerns the creation of content, firstly enabling businesses to communicate clearly and accurately with their customers – and potential customers, but also to help them to establish themselves as a source of useful and reliable information, getting to the top of those all-important SERPs, and building their reputation. Content marketing is a great way to ensure that you are effectively marketing your business, not being left behind your competitors, whilst also being able to communicate effectively with your customer base.
Keep Customers Informed
It is important to keep your customers informed as to how your business is reacting to the coronavirus outbreak. It is not only good business practice but can also help to build relationships with your existing and potential customers. There are several ways that you can do this through your website, including:
Making announcements on your website with regards to the measures that you are taking to help your customers and staff to get through this difficult time
Adding to your FAQ section to cover questions that customers might have regarding how your business is dealing with COVID-19 – food hygiene or customer contact questions, for example
Updating opening hours, delivery options and contact phone numbers or emails to avoid frustration
Consider what people might want to know about your business in relation to COVID-19 and answer these queries in your content
Google has also changed some of its rules for the duration of the outbreak and it is important that you adapt to these changes.
They have announced that they are changing Google My Business profiles, so that businesses can now change some of the details about how they are operating, including their opening hours and whether they do deliveries.
Google has also disabled the ability for people to write business reviews. It is important to allow your customers to communicate any problems that they have directly to you, so you should consider a different solution for the time being.
Social Media
Social media is a great way to show the more personal side of your business to the world. It is an excellent way to engage with your customers and reach out to new ones and show your fun side. Some of the most successful businesses in terms of social media are devising ways to get their customers involved, respond quickly to actions and if they’re lucky, go viral…
Email
Email gives you as a business direct access to someone’s letterbox and this can be a very valuable tool. What you need to do, however, is make sure that any emails that you send out are not deleted before they are even read, and stand out from the rest of the many emails that most of us receive each day about ‘what we’re doing about coronavirus’…
Try adding a personal touch, making it light-hearted, interesting, and human. Remember that a lot of people have a bit more time on their hands than normal and take this all into consideration when you are thinking about what you are going to put in your email.
Although your business might not be functioning as it normally does, it is important that you adapt how you are working to help your business to still be as effective as possible, and still be seen. And content marketing is a great place to start.
